How To Save Money For Your Next Car

Money, don’t you wish you had more of it? Not truckloads that would put you into a headache inducing tax bracket, but enough that you could snap up a great deal whenever you came across one. I’m going to go ahead, and assume that you do, because who in their right mind wouldn’t? The trouble is that when money comes in, it has a tendency to go out, and go out with great frequency. If you want to have more money, you have to do this thing called “saving”, either that, or get a better paying job, rob a bank, or win the lottery. Of those four ways to bolster your bank account, I’d wager the majority of people would go for winning the lottery over the other three, with robbing a bank coming in a close second.

But, lets say for the sake of argument that you’re open to the idea of trying this “saving” thing. How do you do it? How do you squirrel away money for future purchases, when you could very easily spend it in the present? Give yourself a damn good reason not to spend it, that’s how. If you have your sights set on an easily attainable vehicle, set them higher. Look for something that you think is just out of reach, the car that you know you’d love, but are sure that you cannot afford. It’s not a dream car, it’s just something that isn’t feasible due to your current financial situation, or is it?

Let’s say that you’ve always wanted a Porsche Cayman, and more specifically, a ’09-’11 Porsche Cayman S with a sport exhaust, and the Sport Chrono package. At the moment, these typically trade for between $30k-$45k, not exactly thrifty territory. You could give yourself some wiggle room, and look at pre-facelift vehicles from ’06-’08, but then you’re not looking at the car you want, you’re settling for something more attainable. Now, I realize that we’re talking about Porsches here, and the majority of people would say any Porsche would do, but the majority of people are wrong. As is the case with anything you buy, the initial shine will wear off, and you’ll be left with just another item, unless you got exactly what you want. Even then, some of the lust will fade, there will always be newer, shiner, better cars, but if you were patient, and got exactly what you had in mind, you should be able to suppress the urge to “buy in”. This holds just as true for Porsches just as it does for a flat screen TV.

So, lets say you’re up for the challenge of saving for your next car, how do you go about it? How do you magically find money to put away, without increasing the amount of money coming in? Easy, stop buying crap you don’t need. Skip the fancy dinners with the friends you don’t really like, unsubscribe from a few of those monthly services that you’re not really enjoying, cancel your cable, use the world as your gym instead of paying to run on a treadmill. I guarantee you that you’re hemorrhaging funds that could be put into a savings account, funds that could turn into a downpayment on your next car. Finding places to scale back spending isn’t nearly as hard as you think it is, in fact is boarder line easy. If you really want that Porsche, it should be easy to skip a few nights out, which may positively effect other areas of your life as well.

Once your savings account begins to swell with all of this “found money”, you’re going to be tempted to drain it. That’s ok, you’re human, you see all this free money piling up, and you want to get your greedy little hands on it. The thing is, it’s not free or found, this money is the result of hard work, and you’d do well to remember that. Be steadfast, let the funds continue to grow, hold out to get exactly what you want, and when you’re finally in a good position buy, the joy of ownership will be so much greater than if you’d settled, or worse, taken loan with bad terms. Remember, no vehicle is so great that it’s worth giving up your financial freedom to own, not even a Porsche.

Get the best and latest used car deals and tips to your inbox.

(Article continues below)

Follow AutoTempest:

Before you go: Get the best and latest used car deals and tips to your inbox.